http://www.flashandmath.com/ News from www.flashandmath.com -- a large and growing collection of open source, free ActionScript 3 tutorials for Flash. en-us Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST barbara@flashandmath.com barbara@flashandmath.com http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/eventprops/ We examine properties: target, currentTarget, localX, localY, eventPhase and reveal some surprising results. We provide a simple utility that displays those properties for MouseEvent.CLICK. If the interactive object that you want to target has a child which is an interactive object and the user happens to click on the child, localX and localY remain relative to the child throughout the event's propagation, and it is the child that is the Event.target. That is true even if the child itself has no listeners attached to it. Flash source files are available for download. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/eventprops/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/swfscroller/ Our goals are to bundle help files with a mobile app so they can easily be accessed without Internet connection, will not be trying on the memory, and will scroll smoothly. Our help files contain text and graphics. We find that bundling and loading at runtime AS3-free SWF files is a good way to accomplish this. We provide a custom SWFScroller AS3 class. All Flash and AS3 source files are available for download. Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/swfscroller/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/swfs/ You load an external SWF file at runtime using Loader.load() method. You extract the file via Loader.content, cast it to MovieClip, and store in a MovieClip variable. You add a listener to mouse clicks to your loaded MovieClip only to discover that it does not respond to clicks. Isn't Loader.content in the case of loading an SWF file a MovieClip? We discuss the issue and give examples. Flash and AS3 source files included. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/swfs/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/swv/ There is a couple of ways to display web pages in your AIR mobile app: the navigateToURL method and the AS3 StageWebView class. We discuss both, but focus on StageWebView as it displays web content without leaving your app. We explain the finer points of using the class, e.g. disabling and enabling zooming in a StageWebView instance. Complete Flash CS5.5 and CS5 code ready for download. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/swv/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/bddraw/ In many circumstances you may want to draw a DisplayObject into a Bitmap. For example, to take an image 'snapshot' of a Sprite. The important BitmapData.draw method became even more important in development for mobile as Bitmaps are easier to process by mobile devices than vector content. We discuss the method with special emphasis on the second, often overlooked, transform matrix parameter. AS3 Flash source files provided. Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/bddraw/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/compare/ Suppose you want to zoom and pan a MovieClip with static but otherwise complex vector content. From the point of view of performance - memory and frame rate - is it better to leave it in the vector form, draw a scaled up version into a BitmapData or use cacheAsBitmapMatrix AS3 method available in mobile AIR? We compare these three techniques and provide Flash source files and AS3 code which make it easy to test. Also, we show how to create one-finger panning effect. Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/compare/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/zoompan/ We examine two important AS3 gesture events: GESTURE_ZOOM and GESTURE_PAN. We show how to use the AS3 MatrixTransformer class to zoom around any point in an image other than the registration point. We accomplish smooth panning by removing GESTURE_ZOOM listener in the BEGIN phase of GESTURE_PAN event and reinstating it in the END phase. We provide complete, commented source code in Flash CS5.5 and CS5 formats. Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/zoompan/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/cameraroll/ We discuss loading images from the Camera Roll on your phone into an app and saving images of the screen or a part of the screen to the Camera Roll. Many new AS3 classes specific to AIR on mobile come into play. In particular, the AS3 CameraRoll class and its methods: browseForImage() and addBitmapData(). Also, the MediaPromise class and Loader.loadFilePromise(). We provide complete, commented source code in Flash CS5.5 and CS5 formats. Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/cameraroll/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/perlinlines/ We present two versions of Flash art which is based on a simple principle: allowing lines to be traced out on a Bitmap with changing directions determined by an invisible Perlin noise BitmapData. The examples include grayscale and a colorized version. The results are highly aesthetic. The images can be saved due to our custom and easy to reuse BitmapSaver class. Full source code available for download. Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/perlinlines/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweengc/ Most often Tweens quit unexpectedly due to AS3 garbage collection. Unlike instances of the Timer class, Tweens might be eligible for garbage collection even if they are running. We show how to avoid the problem under different scenarios, and how to use System.gc() method to debug your Tweens and make sure they behave correctly. Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweengc/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/pathalpha/ New to Flash Player 10 method graphics.drawPath() speeds up runtime drawing when multiple calls to lineTo() and moveTo() are required. Its behavior when drawing semi-transparent lines is not ideal, though. Intersections of transparent lines appear flattened, without the effect of transparent objects overlapping. With moveTo and lineTo there is a way of preventing such behavior and obtaining correct intersections. Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/pathalpha/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fireworks/ A colorful fireworks display created with an animation of thousands of particles. The fireworks are created using abstract particles which are drawn as pixels to a bitmap. For added realism, we lighten up the sky when the fireworks explode, and also place a dark skyline over the animation. Complete source code available for download. Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fireworks/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/movrect/ A simple piece of Flash art. It is a very minimalist animation of sliding and rotating rectangles, which combine to create an evolving tapestry of colors. It also serves as a tutorial for a few interesting aspects of ActionScript, including blend modes, alpha values, and a technique to prevent Tweens from quitting unexpectedly due to garbage collection. Source code available for download. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/movrect/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/anglemeasure/ In this simple tutorial we explain how to use the accelerometer to find the angle of elevation of an object by pointing your phone at the object. (Angle of elevation is commonly used to determine the height of objects.) We also show how to exit an app when the user taps a phone's Back button, and how to keep the user's phone awake. Flash CS5 source files provided. Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/anglemeasure/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/fire/ A fire effect which is built out of distorted Perlin noise and a few filtering steps. The result is a billowing and chaotic fire rising from the base of the display. The effect makes use of the perlinNoise() method of the BitmapData class, plus a ColorMatrixFilter() and a DisplacementMapFilter(). Complete source code available for download. Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/fire/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/marble/ Another example of a texture created completely from code. Our custom MarbleTexture AS3 class creates a marble-textured Sprite with the same shape and mouse interactivity as any source Sprite that you pass to the constructor. The texture is created with BitmapData methods perlinNoise() and copyChannel(), along with DisplacementMapFilter() and ColorMatrixFilter(). Choose pink, blue or white marble. Complete Flash and AS3 code ready for download. Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/marble/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/peekweb/ A desktop version of our free PeekAMaze app that is currently available for Android phones on the Android Market. The version presented here runs in a standard browser window. The complete source code for the game is provided, including custom AS3 classes that randomly create perfect mazes and their graphical representations. Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/peekweb/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/wood/ We present a custom AS3 WoodTexture class for creating wood-textured display objects completely from code. The class creates a Sprite with the same shape and mouse interactivity as any source Sprite that you pass to the constructor. The very realistic texture is created with a combination of BitmapData methods: perlinNoise(), paletteMap(), and copyChannel(). Download all Flash and AS3 source code files. Wed, 25 May 2011 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/wood/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/peek/ This app is a new twist on the classical maze puzzle. The purpose is to find an exit out of a maze but at each point you can see only a portion of a maze. You have an option of 'peeking' at the maze by dragging it in a view window but the number of 'peeks' is limited. At each level of difficulty, a practically unlimited number of mazes can be generated. We give complete source code using our custom AS3 classes, including a perfect maze generator. Mon, 23 May 2011 09:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/peek/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/trafficfm/ Complete AS3 Flash CS5 source code and discussion for our TafficLightsFM Android app. Our Traffic Lights game is a very challenging extension of the classic 'Lights Out' game. The goal is to click on the lights until you get them all to be green. Clicking on a light changes its color, but also the color of all neighbor lights attached to it. Colors cycle through green, yellow, and red, just like in a traffic light. The puzzles are made from a grid of lights (of varying sizes depending on the settings) which are connected in randomized configurations. Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/trafficfm/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/trafficweb/ A very challenging game which is an extension of the classic 'Lights Out' puzzle. The goal is to click on the lights until you can get them all to be green. Clicking on a light will change its color, but also the color of all of the neighbor lights attached to it. The light colors cycle through green, yellow, and red, just like a traffic light. The puzzles are made from a grid of lights (of varying sizes depending on the settings) which are connected in randomized configurations. Source code available for download. Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/trafficweb/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/rsltip/ When you use the new and powerful TLF text engine, your SWF file will need to load at runtime a Runtime Shared Library, textLayout. During that process a built-in preloader runs. In some situations, it might be better to compile the RSL into your SWF and avoid the download. In this tip, we discuss how to do it and when you might want to do it. Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/rsltip/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/cubesweb/ Recently, we published at the Android Market an app which is a 3D rendition in AIR of the Rolling Cubes puzzle. Here, we present a web-based version of the puzzle so you can play this very challenging and interesting game on your computer. We provide and discuss complete AS3 source code. Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/cubesweb/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/sliderweb/ We present the web-based version of our free GraphSlider app that is currently available for Android phones on the Android Market. The version given here runs in a standard browser window. The complete source code for the puzzle is provided and discussed. Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/sliderweb/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/fuzzy/ We present three new text transition effects. Text becomes broken and fuzzy, then collapses back to form a new line. Simple variation of parameters produces many different effects. The effects are created by drawing text to a bitmap, then using the copyPixels() method of the BitmapData class along with some randomization to redraw small rectangles of the bitmaps in a cleverly transitioning way. This technique can easily be applied to images. Source code available for download. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/fuzzy/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/cubes/ A new 3D rendition of the classic Rolling Cubes puzzle. The puzzle is very challenging and takes a minimum of 36 moves to solve. A 'move' consists of rolling a 3D cube to the only empty space on a grid. Initially all cubes have their black sides facing up. The goal is to invert them so their red sides face up. We provide several simpler versions as a 'warm-up' for the main puzzle. The post contains complete source code, including a Flash CS5 file and custom AS3 classes. Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/cubes/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/slider/ We provide complete source code for our GraphSlider Android AIR app that you can download and install from the Android Market. We comment the code with special emphasis on saving the state of the game. The app contains 30 different puzzles at different levels of difficulty. The purpose is to solve the puzzles and to do so in as few moves as possible to earn a three-star rating. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/slider/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/texttrans/ A cool effect of a transition from one piece of text to another. Text becomes distorted and blurred before transitioning back to a new line of text. The effect makes use of a DisplacementMapFilter (with a perlinNoise source) and a BlurFilter, along with a Tween to control the transition. We present monochrome, colorized, and low CPU versions of the effect. Several parameters allow easy customization and experimentation. Full source code is available for download. Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/texttrans/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/rgbsinks/ A new fun particle effect: RGB sinks and springs. Motion of bitmap particles is determined by their RGB components and their proximity to color 'sinks'. Each red, green and blue sink flies by itself or can be dragged by hand. It attracts and repels particles based on their color components. Invisible 'springs' pull the particles back to their original positions. You can experiment with 'sinks' and 'springs' settings and create a multitude of dynamic particle effects. Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/rgbsinks/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tweengal/ We present an original photo gallery with a bounce. The fun feature of this gallery lies in the way the thumbnails transition to a larger image: the image is loaded into pieces onto the thumbnail rectangles, which then 'snap' together with a tween to form the larger image. The gallery is easily customizable via an XML file. We include several custom AS3 classes that make bulding XML-driven 2D and 3D galleries easy. Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tweengal/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/mazefm/ We provide complete source code for our Android app, MazeFM. The app is a new rendition of the classic maze game. Generate a new perfect maze at a touch of a button. Steer the ball through the maze by moving your finger around a cool and easy to use steering wheel. Choose a level of difficulty you want to play. Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/mazefm/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/maze/ Maze puzzles are easy to create. We provide custom AS3 classes that randomly generate and render so called perfect mazes; that is, mazes that have exactly one solution. At a click of a button you can switch from simple examples to very complex ones. We use an implementation of the classic maze-generating algorithm called recursive backtracker. Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/maze/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/kalei/ New category at Flash and Math: Flash CS5 and AIR for Android. And the first post: complete source code and comments for our Android AIR app, KaleidoscopeFM, that you can download (free) from the Android Market. This entertaining application uses the live feed from your phone's camera to create beautiful, dynamically changing kaleidoscopic images. Useful links and tips how to start Flash CS5 AIR for Android development. Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mobile/kalei/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/twopiles/ We present a new, cute card trick and a much improved version of our custom PlayingCard AS3 class. The class tweens movements and flips of cards. The depth sorting works perfectly for every card regardless of its position. Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/twopiles/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/derdraw/ We present a math applet for sketching derivatives with complete AS3 source code. The applet uses a large collection of custom AS3 classes developed by the Flash and Math team over the past few years. The newest of the classes are related to an interesting drawing and smoothing technique. The user draws by dragging and shaping a curve. Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/derdraw/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/mandelbrot/ We present a major Flash project for your enjoyment! This Flash-based Mandelbrot Plotter allows you to create and save advanced, rich fractal images. The application is full of zooming and coloring features which give you a great amount of control over your images. The images can be large and can be saved in JPEG or PNG formats. Complete source code available for your perusal. Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/mandelbrot/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/carddeal/ A preview of AS3 classes under development at Flash and Math. We show an example where a deck is shuffled and a hand of five cards is dealt with a nice flipping motion of each card. Complete source code available for download. Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/carddeal/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cosmic/ We never tire of playing with particle effects here at flashandmath. This latest example is the result of some playful experimentation with code. Smoky, fading away particles are created by dynamically writing Sprites to a Bitmap and applying a variety of filters and ColorTransforms. In particular, we replaced the BlurFilter from our earlier examples by the DisplacementMapFilter. The results are intruiging. Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cosmic/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/snow3d/ We present a highly realistic 3D snowfall effect. The motion is driven by an acceleration field determined by Perlin noise. That creates a characteristic turbulence of snow motion. We use parallax effect and BlurFilter for flakes that are very far away or very close to the camera. The perception of depth is very real. Download and play with the code! Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/snow3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/text3dfont/ Text is loaded dynamically at runtime. Thanks to the new TLF methods, the body of the text is split into separate lines. The lines are tweened in 3D and colorized creating a great, wavy 3D effect. Moreover, fonts are embedded into TextFlow with the TextFlow.fontLookup property without using the TLFTextField class. Works beautifully on Android 2.2! Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/text3dfont/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/deal/ Whether you are trying to simulate the dealing of a hand of playing cards, scramble images, or randomly choose quiz problems, you will face this problem. We show an easy solution. We use and explain the basic methods of the Array class: Array.concat, Array.splice, and Array.push. Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/deal/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/magic/ The card trick uses a packet of four cards with one initially reversed. The user is allowed to 'shuffle' the packet, flip cards. Regardless of the amount of shuffling, the suit of the card that will be reversed with respect to the others in the end is predicted and displayed ahead of time. Works great on Android 2.2! Custom AS3 classes that shuffle, flip, and cut cards are provided. Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/magic/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/blood/ A touch of Gothic at Flash and Math. We present dynamic blood dripping effects. The effects are very easy to customize; we explain all the gory details. You can make any display object drip blood, you can change the amount of blood, the speed, the splashing effect. Just download the well-commented code and play with it. Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/blood/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/sub/ We show how to combine the BitmapData.perlinNoise method with the DisplacementMapFilter to create a psychedelic art effect. Combining the two techniques is common for creating a variety of effects. We explain the code and the details of the perlinNoise method and the DisplacementMapFilter. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/sub/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mathlets/statistics/ A new category in our math applets collection: statistics. A new category and six new interactive applets that illuminate the basic concepts of statistics: histograms, sample mean, distribution of sample means, sample proportions, and confidence intervals. Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mathlets/statistics/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/cloudsfast/ In our our recent tutorial on clouds effect via BitmapData.perlinNoise and ColorMatrixFilter, we presented a nice clouds animation but very CPU intensive and not suitable for larger images or for mobile devices. Here we present a version that is extremely CPU efficient, runs very well on Android 2.2, and can be used to generate large images. We show two examples in which we generate 500 by 380 animations. Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/cloudsfast/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/clouds/ In this tutorial we show how to use two important methods of the BitmapData class, perlinNoise and ColorMatrixFilter. By combining the two, we obtain a realistic dynamic cloud effect. The color schemes of the sky and the clouds can easily be changed. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/clouds/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/bunny/ We've been having a lot of fun here at flashandmath with surfaces made of particles. So we present the Stanford Bunny and other new beautiful surfaces with modification of earlier effects, a significant optimization of the code, and a simple z-sorting method. The optimized code allows for revolving in 3D over 200,000 particles. Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/bunny/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/pixtut/ Curiously, pixel particles that are behind most particle effects are not display objects. In this tutorial we explain the nature of pixel particles. We give a simple example that shows how to create and move particles and how to make them leave shadowy trails. Our example handles comfortably as many as 200,000 particles. Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/pixtut/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/colorfount/ New engaging interactive particle effect. Pixel particles move based on their position but also based on their color and the colors of the neighboring pixels via attract/repel action. The motion creates a pretty 'color fountain'. Complete source code ready to download. Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/colorfount/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/lightmore/ More examples of our popular 'particles made of light'. New surfaces, more particles, new effects, and a custom performance monitor. We discovered great performance improvement in FP 10.1 v. FP 10. Awesome! Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/lightmore/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pflowers/ Watch flowering, mathematically generated patterns dynamically bloom and fade. Four different themes: Lush, Wilting, Amber and Frosty, each with different coloring and fading transforms. Really pretty! Code ready to download. Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pflowers/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/curves/ In this effect, the user can easily create and save interesting images composed of families of math curves. We show how to draw a DisplayObject to a BitmapData via BitmapData.draw and how to save an image from SWF via FP10 FileReference.save method. Also, We provide custom VerticalSlider and HorizontalSlider AS3 classes that are light-weight and perfom very smoothly. Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/curves/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/light/ Thousands of particles which appear to be made of light form beautiful revolving surfaces in 3D space. We use an additive luminescent effect which creates brighter spots where particles are more concentrated. We present four examples with variations in color and filter effects. Complete source code available for download. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/light/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tint/ One way is to use fl.motion.Color class and its setTint method. Another way is to assign a proper ColorTransform to object's transform.colorTransform property. In this How-To, we show and explain both ways. Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tint/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/astronaut/ We present a new 3D particle effect, Astronaut, in which We animate 15,000 particles. The principles that govern motion of particles are different from those in Kepler's Supernova and our other popular examples. In Astronaut, the particles fly upwards at a height based on their luminance. As always, we provide easily customizable source code. Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/astronaut/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/mczoom/ A simple tutorial on creating magnifying glass effect for vector graphics and MovieClips. The technique is quite different from zooming on bitmap images presented in our earlier tutorial. Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/mczoom/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rings/ We present a 3D photo gallery in which rings of two-sided thumbnails revolve in 3D. The gallery is easily customizable via an XML file. We included several custom AS3 classes that make bulding XML-driven 3D galleries easy. Complete source code available for download. Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rings/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/rgbs/ We build in this tutorial a nice custom color picker but our real goal is to present formulas for extracting RGB components from a color value, for combining RGB componets into a color value, and for rewriting a color in HEX. We give detailed explanations of binary and hexadecimal representations and discuss the bitwise operators involved. Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/rgbs/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cube3d/ Each instance of the DisplayCube class accepts any DisplayObjects as sides, it revolves in 3D, its sides respond to clicks. Moreover, the cube drops shadow in 3D! We show an application with three Bitmap cube menus that drop dynamic shadows on the floor beneath as they rotate. Correct depth-sorting regardless of position and projection settings. We use simple FP10 3D methods. Source code ready to download. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cube3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kepler/ Check out our new 3D particle effect: the spectacular Kepler's Supernova. We animate 17,000 pixel particles put into motion based on the difference between their red and blue color components. Thus, every time you change the underlying bitmap image, you will obtain a different effect. Source code ready to download. Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kepler/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/text3d/ Text is loaded dynamically at runtime. Thanks to the new TLF methods, the body of the text is divided between two 3D boards and split into separate lines. Each line flips in 3D with a tween. Super cool! Code ready to download. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/text3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/zoomgraph/ We present a math function grapher which has a drag and drop panning and mouse click zooming functionality. Panning has a cool easing effect, too. All the source code including parsing and graphing custom AS3 classes are available for download. Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/zoomgraph/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/interp/ We present a custom InterpolateColorTransform class and interesting color and image effects accomplished using the methods of the class. The methods provide several ways to smoothly transition between two instances of ColorTransform. The methods of the custom class are more versatile than Color.interpolateTransform method of the built-in Color class in the fl.motion package. Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/interp/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/outlinedtext/ The easiest way to create a dynamic text field in which all individual characters are outlined is to apply an instance of the GlowFilter to the text field. Simply choose low blur parameters and large strength parameter for the GlowFilter and a color you want for your outline. In this tip we show how to do it. Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/outlinedtext/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fishgame/ Check out this cool little game. You can use it as a tutorial about blend modes and sound in AS3, or you can simply enjoy catching chameleon fish. Complete source code ready to download. Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fishgame/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/zoom/ In this How-To we show how to accomplish a common but not entirely straightforward task of zooming in on a specific point of an image (or any other DisplayObject) and how to pan an image. We use the AS3 MatrixTransformer class from fl.motion package. We also show how to coordinate simultaneous mouse and keyboard interactions. Thu, 27 May 2010 09:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/zoom/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/texteffs/ We load TLF markup text at runtime, use a custom TextSlicer AS3 class to split the text into lines, and then tween, slide, zoom, fade in, and color. We show how to use the new AS3 classes available in Flash CS5 to accomplish a variety of interesting text effects. Complete source code available for download. Tue, 25 May 2010 09:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/texteffs/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/gettext/ The new TLF text AS3 classes are extremely useful for creating cool text effects, particularly if you can import your text on the fly, at runtime. TLF formatting and layout can be saved in a text file or in an XML file. But what is the correct TLF markup? In this tutorial, we show how to create a text file or an XML file containing TLF markup, load the file at runtime, and display the dynamically loaded text. Thu, 20 May 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/gettext/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/storm/ Enjoy a spectacular particle storm! In this experiment we use a bitmap filled with Perlin noise to create an acceleration field. The field controls the motion of thousands of particles creating a turbulent, dramatic effect. We use filters and color transforms to obtain the effect of fading trails behind the churning particles. Complete source code available for download. Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/storm/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/textcols/ We show how to use the new AS3 text layout classes: TextFlow, ContainerController, TextLayoutFormat, and properties like TextFlow.flowComposer to lay out and format text programmatically. In our example, the number of columns in the layout can be changed on the fly by dragging a slider. We discuss the Runtime Shared Library necessary for TLF text. Also, did you know that an animated preloader is a part of default publish settings in Flash CS5? It's great! Mon, 10 May 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/textcols/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweencontrol/ When you interrupt a tweened motion, preventing erratic and undesirable behavior of subsequent tweens can be a little tricky. In this example we show how to get smooth and predictable response of multiple tweens that may be interrupted by user's actions. The technique is useful for building a flipping menu, including a 3D menu. Mon, 03 May 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweencontrol/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/textaccordion/ In this video tutorial we present an overview of the new text-related AS3 classes available in Flash CS5, and give an example of an accordion-pleated text effect built using these classes. The new AS3 classes include TextFlow, TextConverter, ContainerController, and StarndardFlowComposer. They allow for creating linked text fields programmatically and give precise control over text layout. Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/textaccordion/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/customsnippet/ In this video and written tutorial, we show how to create a custom snippet and add it to the Flash CS5 Code Snippets panel. The snippet spins an object in 3D and at the same time brings the object forward in a Star Wars kind of effect. We discuss the important point of custom snippets not being transferable via fla files. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/customsnippet/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/snippets/ In this video tutorial, we present a real life application - a showcase consisting of opening and closing folders that contain clickable thumbnails. The application is built from Code Snippets - a new feature of Flash CS5. Not one line of AS3 code is entered by hand. Really cool! Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/snippets/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/ppfl/ The focalLength is not always what you might think it is. You create a PerspectiveProjection object: pp=new PerspectiveProjection(), and set pp's properties. When you assign: obj.transform.perspectiveProjection=pp to a DisplayObject, the focalLength changes. Why? How does it change? We explain this in our new tutorial. The value of focalLength is crucial for effective 3D depth-sorting. Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/ppfl/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/smoothdraw/ We present a drawing application which allows you to create smooth and dynamic lines with a very responsive feel. The lines change thickness and color depending on how fast you move your mouse. The overall effect is somewhat like drawing with thick markers or paint. Full source code is available for download. Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/smoothdraw/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/ Just watched the Adobe Creative Suite 5 Launch Event and read Richard Galvan's article. Amazing new features in all products, including Flash CS5. The Suite ships mid May! Your Flash and Math team cannot wait to get our hands on Flash CS5 and bring you a new series of tutorials and effects. Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs5/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rotator/ If a card rotating in 3D is not located near the projection center, determining which side should be visible by looking at the angle of rotation may not work. We show a depth-sorting method that works in every case by using a normal vector to a card and a vector toward the observer. We present a versatile CardRotator class. Flip, tween, and rotate any 3D card! Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rotator/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/leo/ We present a custom AS3 class that folds and unfolds an image in 3D in accordion-pleated fashion. We use the native Flash Player 10 3D methods and achieve a remarkably realistic effect. On click, an image folds or unfolds in a tweened motion. This effect helps save real estate in your Flash movie. And it is just plain cool! Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/leo/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotation/ The easiest solution is to use the MatrixTransformer class. However, there are pitfalls one needs to be aware of when working with MatrixTransformer. We show how to apply successfully the methods rotateAroundInternalPoint and rotateAroundExternalPoint, and how to avoid the accumulation of error that might otherwise shift your object while rotating. Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotation/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/ease/ We present a simple way to create a super smooth response to mouse-controlled input by user, without using the Tween class. We use the dragging of MovieClips with the mouse and motion in response to sliding a slider as examples, but our technique can be applied to any type of mouse interaction. Easing creates an effect of smooth dragging and gives the dragged object 'weight'. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/ease/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/retrotv/ We present a custom AS3 class, RetroTV, that easily converts any DisplayObject, (possibly combined of Sprites, Video, Shapes, TextFields), to a retro television display. The display is complete with lines, noise, and distortion. The television image is updated continuously in real time to reflect changes of the object on the TV display. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/retrotv/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/colortrans/ It is as easy as typing Color.interpolateColor(color1,color2,progress). The Color class does all the work of linearly interpolating between the red, green and blue components for any two colors. The effect is a smooth, gradual transition. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/colortrans/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/color/ We present an interactive 3D particle animation which demonstrates the relationship between the red, green, blue (RGB) color model and the hue, saturation, value (HSV) model. The former is best visualized on a cube, the latter on a cone. Rotate and move the RGB cube in 3D, have it morph into the HSV cone and back. Download the complete code. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/color/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kal3mir/ Three mirror kaleidoscope generates much richer symmetry patterns than the most common, centrally symmetric two mirror kaleidoscope. With the help from the Graphics.copyFrom method new to Flash Player 10, we create a three mirror kaleidoscope AS3 class. You provide a vector or a bitmap image and the class generates multiple beautiful patterns. Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kal3mir/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/sliderstepper/ A simple but interesting example of how the behavior and properties of the Slider and the NumericStepper components can be controlled programmatically. In the example, an instance of Slider and an instance of NumericStepper control each other each other as well as the transparency an object. Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/sliderstepper/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/seuss/ Glowing lights fly up into the air and leave behind trails that look like colorful twisted stalactites. The effect looks like something in the style of Dr. Seuss, or perhaps like something out of the movie Avatar. Full source code is available to download. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/seuss/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flower/ A spectacular 3D particle effect with full source code ready to download. An image of a flower explodes into a 3D helix. Watch the colorful particles twist and fly through space, or turn off the automatic mode and use the sliders to control the motion and geometry of the particle cloud. The code involves z-buffering of particles, interactive quaternion-based rotation, and bitmap filters. Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flower/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/ghost/ If you'd like to start creating your own cool particle effects, this tutorial is for you. We use one particle and explain how to code the effect of a particle leaving a fading 'ghostly' trail while moving. We also explain how to draw to a Bitmap, which is at the heart of most particle effects. And how to use ColorTransform. Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/ghost/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/repeatbutton/ We show how to easily create a button that behaves like an alarm clock setting button: it speeds up display changes when pressed and held down for a while. The effect is easy to accomplish as the 'delay' property of the Timer object can be adjusted programmatically on the fly. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/repeatbutton/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/zsort/ In Flash Player 10 one can literally 'build' 3D objects by placing their elements in the 3D space. Such objects can be rotated easily. The z-sorting, however, has to be done 'by hand'. In this tutorial, we show that with the effects of perspective projection, sorting by the z-coordinate does not work very well. Instead, we sort with respect to the distance from the observer. Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/zsort/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/datagrid/ The very useful DataGrid component manages a table of data. It conveniently has methods for adding, removing and replacing entries, and it also has the ability to sort entries via a simple click on a column heading. In this tutorial, we show how to use the DataGrid component for drawing a simple scatter plot, a statistical graph appropriate for this data-oriented component. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/datagrid/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pptip/ A simple but useful tip concerning native 3D methods of Flash Player 10. Problem: If you assign a custom instance of PerspectiveProjection to an InteractiveObject, you lose interactivity. Solution: Create a 2D container for the object and assign a PespectiveProjection instance to the container. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pptip/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cylinouter/ An XML-customizable, versatile gallery on a rotating 3D cylinder viewed from the outside. Interesting shading effects! The tutorial includes many useful custom AS3 classes: multiple image loader, a preloader and more. Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cylinouter/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/snow/ We present a custom AS3 SnowDisplay class which can be used to create a variety of realistic 3D snow animations that include turbulence and wind effects. You can superimpose the animated snow over your image. You can create two instances of the class with small flakes and larger flakes, and place your graphics in between the instances creating an incredibly real-looking effect. We use Perlin noise, the parallax effect, particle techniques, and physical modelling. Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/snow/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cylingallery/ An awesome cylindrical 3D photo gallery that can be fully customized by editing a simple XML file. Sit in the center of the cylinder and watch the images revolve around you. The application uses native 3D methods of Flash Player 10. One of the technical details reveals a rather counterintuintive behavior of the custom PerspectiveProjection. We show how to overcome it. Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cylingallery/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweenspinner/ A simple AS3 how-to in which we show basic methods and properties of the Tween class. We also show how to generate random integers in a given range via the Math.random() method. We construct a simple game spinner as an example. Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/tweenspinner/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/circlefill/ What if you need to fill shapes that go beyond the simple shapes built into ActionScript? For example, you may need to create fills the are sectors of a circle or other less common shapes. The trick is to approximate such shapes with polygonal shapes and draw the polygons the standard way. In this easy How-To, we show how to do it. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/circlefill/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/events/ In this AS3 How-Tos and Tips entry, we illustrate a few less known but very important facts about AS3 mouse events. Among others, we demonstrate the difference between MOUSE_OVER and MOUSE_OUT versus ROLL_OVER and ROLL_OUT. We show the Flash Player level event Event.MOUSE_LEAVE in action, and examine MOUSE_UP when the cursor is outside of the display area. Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/events/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/multi/ We show how to create a spectacular 3D spotlight and shadow effect in which a multicolored object is dynamically illuminated. The effect extends our recent moving spotlight tutorial to multicolored objects. It is achieved via 2D masking, filtering and blend modes tricks. Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/multi/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/spot/ We present an effect in which an object, in our example text, is illuminated by a moving spotlight, with a shadow cast on a wall behind the text. The effect is three-dimensional, but we are not using any of the native 3D methods in Flash. Rather, the effect is achieved with some clever layering and masking. Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/spot/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/waterfall/ We present a particle effect of a spectacular, dynamic waterfall. By manipulating parameters, you can easily customize the look and the feel of your waterfall. You can choose a transparent background and place a waterfall over any image you want. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/waterfall/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rate/ We give a simple example of an oscillating ball that shows huge differences in the achievable frame rate between browsers on the same system. In Firefox, the movie easily goes to 300 FPS, in Internet Explorer 8, it won't go above 65 FPS. The frame rate is changed programmatically at runtime. We give a simple AS3 class that displays current frame rate and memory consumption. Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rate/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/paper/ We present an effect meant to recreate the childhood experience of cutting and unfolding paper. Cut out polygons from a folded paper triangle like you would with a scissors and see the beautiful snowflake-like patterns emerge as the paper unfolds. The effect is based on custom AS3 classes that use methods new to Flash Player 10. Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/paper/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/waitshow/ The user clicks on a button, the actions to be performed take a while, so you want to display an hour glass or a message to the user 'Please wait'. Not as easy as it sounds. The most obvious idea of toggling the visibilty of your message within a MOUSE_CLICK handler will not work. AS3 will never interrupt execution of a block of code to update the screen. We show a solution and discuss the issue. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/waitshow/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flakes/ We provide a custom AS3 class, SnowFlake, and an applet that creates snowflakes from a drawing generated by the user. The user creates a drawing through simple dragging of dots. Via a series of symmetries and random parameters, the image gives rise to an unlimited number of complex snowflake patterns. We use new to FP10 methods: Graphics.drawPath and Graphics.copyFrom. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flakes/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/nova/ This exploding star particle effect will blow you away! Watch the mesmerizing colors of particles and their shadowy trails as they billow away from the core. As always, complete AS3 source code comes with the tutorial. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/nova/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/gradients/ We show how to create and precisely control gradient fills in AS3 with the createGradientBox method of the Matrix class. We discuss the parameters of the beginGradientFill method and show how to manipulate them to draw programmatically interesting gradient fills. Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/gradients/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/alpha/ In an AS3 Flash CS4 How-To, we look at this question. You assign 'alpha' to a given DisplayObject, say dispObj.alpha=0.8. On the next line you put trace(dispObj.alpha). The traced value is about 0.7969. Actually, the rule seems to be: the true value of 'alpha' is equal to Math.floor(a*256)/256 for an assigned value 'a'. We look at ways of dealing with this discrepancy. Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/alpha/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/ribbons/ We continue our popular series of particle animations with a whimsical new example. This time, the particles consist of line segments which rotate as they move. Small rectangles are drawn between the previous segment location to the new segment, producing the effect of twirling ribbons being swept out in the trajectories. ColorTransform is continuously applied to produce smooth gradient coloring. Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/ribbons/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotatetext3d/ Rotating text using 'rotation' property requires embedding fonts. In Flash Player 10 another technique can be used. Instead of 'rotation', you can apply 'rotationZ'. Since 3D objects are converted to bitmaps before rendering, it is a bitmap 'snapshot' of your text field that rotates. Thus, embedding fonts is no longer necessary. We show how to do it and how to use 'scaling correction' technique to minimize blur. Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotatetext3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotatetext/ There's nothing more disconcerting to a new Flash user than to experiment with assets on the stage and witness mysterious behavior that requires deeper understanding of Flash. One example of this comes when one discovers that there is something strange about changing 'rotation' and 'alpha' properties of a dynamic textbox. When rotated, text simply vanishes. In this simple How-To, we demonstrate the process of embedding fonts in the Flash IDE which remedies the problems. Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/rotatetext/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fountain/ Don't miss this spectacular 'fountain made of particles effect'. The effect uses our custom AS3 classes that, with some variations of parameters, produced our recent, very popular examples of Splashing Rain and Lorenz Attractor in Bubble Form. This new effect in the series shows the versatility of the custom AS3 classes. Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/fountain/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/blursol/ Everyone who works with 3D methods in FP10 is familiar with the blurring issue: the moment an object becomes a 3D object, it blurrs. We present a simple and elegant solution to this issue by Matteo Sisti Sette. His solution consists of a clever 'scaling correction'. Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/blursol/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/bubbles/ Don't miss this very interesting visual effect. The Lorenz Attractor, a choatic dynamical system, is drawn in the form of bubbles which become loose and float away. The bubbles shrink, dissolve, and seem to follow ever-changing pattern. Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/bubbles/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/compass/ We show how to create a draggable compass whose behavior thanks to tweening and a bit of trigonometry appears very realistic. As you drag the compass, the needle turns North. We make heavy use of and discuss the method Math.atan2. Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/compass/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/eztimer/ In this simple How-To, we show an example of how to use the new to AS3 Timer class. In our little applet, the user can control Timer.repeatCount and Timer.delay while the elapsed time is displayed. It becomes clear that Timer.delay time is only approximate, and that a Timer cannot fire more often than ten times the frame rate of the Flash movie. Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/eztimer/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/loadxml/ XML is a vast subject. But often all you want to do is to load an external XML file and process its content for use in your application. How to load an external XML file? How to access its elements and use the content in your code? How to write an XML file. This simple How-To answers all these questions. Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/loadxml/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/externalswf/ A new entry in our growing How-To collection. Through a simple and short example, we illustrate how to load an external SWF file at runtime and how to access its AS3 variables and methods. Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/externalswf/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rain/ We present a versatile custom AS3 class, RainDisplay. We show examples how, with easy parameter manipulation, you can create a variety of engaging visual effects: rain with splashing raindrops, dripping paint, and much more. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/rain/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/reflection3d/ We have posted six new How-Tos on our AS3 How To and Tips page. Among them, 3D image reflection that rotates in 3D together with the image. To accomplish the effect, we use gradient masking and new Flash Player 10 3D methods. Another How-To explains gradient masking in AS3. Check it out! Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/reflection3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/ We've started a new section! Short, focused examples of how to accomplish specific tasks in AS3. Tips, time savers, hints concerning compiler errors, and more. Among the initial postings: one about the Mouse.cursor property that is new to Flash Player 10. Did you know that in FP10 you can easily change the mouse cursor without tons of code? Neat! Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/howtos/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4billboard/ We use the native 3D methods available in Flash Player 10 as well as several custom ActionScript 3 classes to construct an advertising billboard with a 3D twist. The billboard is fully customizable by editing a simple XML file. Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4billboard/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/gallerykal/ We present a gallery of kaleidoscopic effects and stunning, dynamically generated images. Take a photo of street graffiti, or any other image, and transform it into infinitely many fascinating symmetrical patterns. The tutorial is co-authored by a new member of the Flash and Math team, Dan Gries. Dan's original AS3 effects have become popular in the Flash community. Welcome Dan! Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/gallerykal/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kalscope/ We use the new ActionScript 3 method, graphics.copyFrom, supported by the Flash Player 10, to create spectacular kaleidoscope effects. We provide a custom AS3 class, Kaleidoscope, that can easily be customized in all respects. A simple change in the intial image passed to the constructor produces dramatic changes in subsequent kaleidoscopic images. Fun to play with! Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/kalscope/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flip/ It's the ultimate image flip tutorial. We present two custom AS3 classes, TweenFlipCS4 and TweenFlipCS3 prepared for FP10 and FP9, respectively. Flip vertically, horizontally, customize tweens and speed of rotation. In the CS4 version we use native AS3 3D methods. We provide a way to solve the well-known problem of blurring 3D objects. In the CS3 version we use a custom AS3 BitmapTransformer class. Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/flip/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pp/ If you have more than one 3D object in your movie, manipulating the perspectiveProjection property of the root may not produce satisfactory results. In this tutorial we show how to assign instances of the PerspectiveProjection class to individual display objects, and we show several ways of accomplishing this. The behavior of such assignments may surprise you. Check it out. Tue, 26 May 2009 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/pp/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/xmlspinner/ Due to the great popularity of our earlier spinning gallery, we present a much improved version of the gallery and of the underlying SpinnerMenu AS3 class. The new gallery is XML-driven and thus easily customizable; each instance has its own PerspectiveProjection object which makes several instances of the menu in the same movie look good; loaded images can easily be captioned. Don't miss this one! Mon, 18 May 2009 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/xmlspinner/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/fractions/ The custom AS3 'Fraction' class included with this tutorial handles arithmetic of fractions. Three Flash CS3 applets that make use of the class are also provided to demonstrate how the new class works. Within the class definition, we illustrate the 'rest...' and the untyped '*' constructs for function input parameters, which allow for flexible definitions of class methods. Fraction class allows for exact fraction arithmetic and complements our more general MathParser class. Mon, 04 May 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/fractions/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/ticker/ In this effect, we show how to use our custom AS3 class 'NewsTicker' to create a customizable 3D message ticker. We use the new 3D methods available in AS3 for Flash Player 10. Messages are loaded from an external XML file. Each instance of NewsTicker has its own PerspectiveProjection object independent of the PerspectiveProjection of the main movie. We also examine the issue of display objects becoming blurry when placed in the 3D space, the issue particularly bothersome when dealing with text. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/ticker/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spingallery/ In this effect, we present a 3D image gallery in Flash CS4 in which the menu of thumbnails is spinning in 3D. The tiles spin asynchonously creating a nice effect. At each spin, a different set of images is revealed on the reverse of each tile. The code can be adapted to create any kind of 3D spinning menu. The custom AS3 SpinnerMenu class at the heart of the effect, uses the new 3D rotation properties available in Flash Player 10. Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spingallery/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/swfload/ Loading external SWF files that contain references to 'stage' requires caution and often extra steps to avoid runtime errors. We discuss the issues involved and give solutions. We also explore the question of unloading loaded content. We explore an exciting new method available in Flash Player 10, Loader.unloadAndStop and its superiority over Loader.unload. Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/swfload/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/contours/ We use our custom AS3 classes to build an applet which combines a contour diagram plotter and a 3D function grapher. The user can input formulas for functions and variables' ranges. The applet uses our custom classes, including MathParser, GraphingBoard, and GraphingBoard3D. We provide complete, well-commented source code and a pdf guide for custom classes. Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/contours/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/implicit/ The implicit equations grapher presented in this tutorial is another example of how the custom AS3 math classes provided at flashandmath.com can be used to easily create graphing applications. In this tutorial, we use our custom MathParser and GraphingBoard classes that do all the work for you. The tutorial contains complete, well-commented source code. Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/implicit/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/simplegraph/ Our custom AS3 class, SimpleGraph, makes creating and customizing functional graphers a snap. It takes hardly more than 30 lines of code to build a graph that will plot any user-defined (or predefined) expression in one variable. This tutorial explains step-by-step how to do it. You can build mathematical function graphers or illustrate easily a dependence between two variables. Check it out! Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/simplegraph/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/book3d/ In this effect, we show how to use our custom AS3 class 'Book' and a sequence of Timers to create a 3D animated book that spins, rotates, and travels through 3D space. We also demonstrate how to flip TextFields and other DisplayObjects in 3D. We use images of our book but the source code can be easily customized. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/book3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/drawpathCS4/index.html The 'drawPath' method in Flash CS4 renders faster than a series of individual lineTo() and curveTo() methods and uses a floating computation so rotation and scaling of shapes is more accurate and gives better results. However, its syntax is a little odd and it uses different rules for fills and lines. This tutorial aims to provide enough examples to illustrate the new method while keeping the code simple enough for a beginner to understand. In particular, we illustrate the winding protocols. Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/drawpathCS4/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/appletsbook/about.html The new book, 'Flash and Math Applets: Learn by Example', is now available at Amazon.com. The book teaches beginning ActionScript 3 programming using examples, many based on the popular tutorials at flashandmath.com. The book shows you how to create effects and interactions from simple to complex. It walks you step-by-step through building dozens of applets. It includes a full chapter on new 3D methods in Flash CS4. Peek inside and download sample chapters! Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/appletsbook/about.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spheregallery/ The new ActionScript 3 3D methods available in Flash Player 10 and Flash CS4 make it very easy to create sophisticated 3D effects that before required advanced tools like Papervision3d. In this example, we show how to build a beautiful 3D spherical image gallery. The sphere of thumbnails can be rotated by the user or it auto rotates. When the user clicks on a thumbnail, an image loads. Building such an impressive gallery requires only a couple of pages of timeline code. Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spheregallery/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spacegallery/ A stunning 3D gallery of outer space images! The new 3D ActionScript 3 methods available in Flash Player 10 and Flash CS4 make it possible to literally 'build' complex 3D objects by positioning their elements in Flash's 3D space. It's simple and easy. In this effect, we build a 3D cylindrical gallery. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/spacegallery/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/appletsbook/ Check out a gallery of examples from the book, 'Flash and Math Applets: Learn by Example'. The book illustrates the progression of ideas and techniques that will take a Flash developer from novice to pro with ActionScript 3 programming. The book includes 'tips for improvements' for those using Flash CS4 as well as an entire chapter on 3D methods in Flash CS4. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/appletsbook/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4planets/ We create a collection of 3D textured spheres, namely planets, that auto rotate or can be rotated by the user in 3D. We use the AS3 method 'drawTriangles' for texture mapping. The method is new to Flash Player 10 and Flash CS4. A comparison with an earlier version of the app, where a custom AS3 class was used for bitmap distortion, shows that the drawTriangles method significantly improves rendering speed, memory usage, and rendered bitmap quality. Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4planets/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4simple3d/ In this new tutorial at Flash and Math, we present basics of runtime 3D drawing in Flash CS4 done in the simplest possible way. We use the new Matrix3D, Vector3D classes and rotational methods to build a simple renderer for 3D objects drawn at runtime. The objects auto rotate or can be rotated by the user. We show examples of a cube and an icosahedron but you can easily replace those with your own 3D objects. It's amazing how easy it has become. Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/flashcs4/cs4simple3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/mathlets/ We added a new section to our site: Flash applets for learning math. With the power of ActionScript 3 and the speed of Flash Player 10, the Flash platform provides an alternative to Java and other tools for creating sophisticated learning modules for math and science. Visit and see what Flash can do for education. Intriquing for educators and Flash developers alike! Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/mathlets/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/magglass/ We show how to easily create a magnifying glass effect. When the user mouses over an image, a magnified portion is displayed. We use the bitmapFill method rather than masking to accomplish the effect. Since a high resolution image is loaded at runtime, we show how to create a simple load progress display. The image, the shape and dimensions of the magnifying glass, the magnification factor are all easily customizable. Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/magglass/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/planets/ In this experiment we build a gallery of 3D textured planets, including Earth, Mars, Venus and others. The planets auto rotate or can be rotated in 3D by the user. We present a new, easier to customize version of our popular BitmapSphere AS3 class. Since our planets glow, we discuss the AS3 GlowFilter class. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/planets/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/timers/ In this tutorial at flashandmath.com, we use simple examples to illustrate the AS3 Timer and Date classes and their basic methods. We explain how to use a Timer object to create animated motion or a repeated event. In one of the examples, the user generates a random number and a game piece moves around a board that number of spaces. In another example, we show how to combine the Date class with a Timer object to create a digital clock effect. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/timers/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/billboard/ Inspired by a recent post from onebyonedesign about billboard-type transitions in Player 10, we present similar effects in Flash CS3. Without rotationX and rotationY properties they have to be done differently but they are doable. Our custom AS3 Billboard class makes it easy to create your own billboards, with your own images (or DisplayObjects), your choice of the number of slices, and the direction of the flip. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/billboard/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/randompic/ Learn how to store images addresses in an external XML file and load them randomly at runtime. We give a few simple examples: a random image is loaded when a button is clicked; a random image is chosen when the swf loads; several images are randomly shuffled. We illustrate the difference between the AS3 Loader and the URLLoader classes. A response to a question at flashandmath.com forum. Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/randompic/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/p10triangles/ One of the most powerful new AS3 methods that will become available in Flash Player 10 is the drawTriangles method. It allows for sophisticated 2D and 3D bitmap transformations, in particular for 3D texture mapping. In this experiment at flashandmath.com, we illustrate and explain the drawTriangles method in the context of 2D image transformations. The user can contort the image by dragging its corners and change the number of triangles to observe the effects of changing resolution on the transformed image. FP10 Beta 1 and FP10 Beta 2 versions are provided. Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/p10triangles/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/latex/ In this multi-prong tutorial, we show how to use a LaTeX to swf utility to insert elegant, scalable scientific expressions into your Flash movie. We also discuss the ScrollPane component. We show how to configure the component and how to use it for displaying photographs, text, or formulas. Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/latex/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/fourparticles/ Four stunning 3D particle experiments by Dan Gries at flashandmath.com. A sphere separates into several spheres based on the particles color; particles revolve and tend to a gravity center; particles transition throughout a cube, and more. You can rotate and manipulate the particles in 3D. Dan's previous particle post was a hit. Don't miss this one! Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/fourparticles/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/sphere/ In this new flashandmath.com tutorial, we deal with the important subject of texture mapping in AS3. We use custom AS3 classes to paste a bitmap image around a sphere and to create a textured sphere. Spheres that we create can be rotated in 3D with the mouse. We give two examples: a wood-textured sphere and a sphere with a beautiful image pasted over it. The examples are easily customizable. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/sphere/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/p10cube/ A FP10 experiment at flashandmath.com. We construct an open-sided, interactive cube whose sides are bitmaps. The user can rotate the cube in 3D and change perpective. Sides respond to clicks. Whenever possible, we use simple built-in 3D methods available in Player 10. We use the new AS3 matrix3D class for depths-sorting only. FP10 Beta 1 and FP10 Beta 2 versions are provided. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/p10cube/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/movieclips/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. The tutorial illustrates various ways of controlling at runtime MovieClips created at design time. We start by placing code on a MovieClip's timeline and end by linking MovieClips to custom AS3 classes. We use bubbling liquid and the Cereal Box Problem as examples. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/movieclips/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/listeners/ We present the Lights Out Game in which the number of cells is randomly generated at runtime with each new game. Thus, the click listeners attached to each square cell have to be created on the fly. The listeners are similar but different for each square. Don't miss this interesting tutorial at flashandmath.com written by James Hamblin. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/listeners/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/morequizzes/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We show a simple way to create quizzes that use CheckBox or ComboBox interfaces. Questions and answers are pulled at runtime from an external XML file. Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/morequizzes/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/t1player10/ In this new tutorial at flashandmath.com, we show how to use a few simple 3D features of Player 10, rotationX, rotationY, fieldOfView, to perform free rotations of bitmaps in 3D with perspective and texture mapping. Amazing. And all of these without even using the powerful drawTriangles method or Matrix3D class. We discuss the 3D coordinate system in Player 10 and the Z coordinate versus depth. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/t1player10/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/rolls/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We present two custom AS3 classes: BitmapRoll and BitmapCylinder. The former takes a bitmap image and coils it into a 3D coil that can be rotated by the user. The latter, wraps a bitmap around a cylinder. Both the coil and the cylinder respond to clicks. The kind of result that will not become easier in Flash Player 10 despite its native 3D capabilities. Tue, 27 May 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/rolls/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/widgets/ A tutorial at flashandmath.com by Bri Lance that shows how to create useful AS3 widgets. The widgets flip in 3D. One side of a widget contains user controls that control the other side. The effect is accomplished by taking a 'snapshot' of a Sprite via methods of the AS3 BitmapData class. Such snapshots are combined with 3D rotation techniques. Mon, 19 May 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/widgets/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/gummy/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We show our custom AS3 BitmapTransformer class in action. In one example we have a bitmap whose vertices can be dragged in an arbitrary way and the image is distorted accordingly in all sorts of contorsions. In the second example, we throw in a dash of tween, and create 'an elastic' image. Great visual effects! Mon, 12 May 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/gummy/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/tricks/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We explore less common ways of using the AS3 Tween class. The class is remarkably flexible. Instead of tweening properties directly related to motion or appearance, we tween a property of an auxiliary object. We show how to use the technique to create tweened nonlinear motion, tweened text effects, and a 'balloon motion' effect. We also illustrate the built-in AS3 easing functions. Tue, 06 May 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/tricks/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/particles3d/ Don't miss this stunning visual effect at flashandmath.com, created by Dan Gries. A revolving image dissolves into a changing, exploding particle cloud that can be rotated with the mouse before the thousands of particles come together again. Download ActionScript 3 code. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/particles3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/radiobuttonquiz/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. Learn how to create a simple quiz supplied with content from an external XML data file. This particular quiz structure uses only RadioButton components, but the ideas are adaptable to other interfaces. Like all of our basic and intermediate level tutorials, this one, too, contains detailed, step-by-step explanations. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/radiobuttonquiz/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tween3d/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We use the AS3 Tween class and the AS3 collection of easing functions to create interesting rotation effects for 3D objects, in our example, a hexagonal cylinder drawn at runtime. The Tween class can tween any numerical property of any object! And it has many events to play with. Great possibilities. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tween3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/art/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. Create your own gallery of visually stunning interactive images made up of parametric curves. We provide a sample gallery and everything you need to experiment on your own and build your own collection. Don't miss this one! Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/art/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/sliders/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We present custom ActionScript 3 classes HorizontalSlider and VerticalSlider. The classes provide a light-weight alternative to the built-in Flash CS3 slider component. You can use as many of our sliders as you want in one application without increasing the swf size. As an example of usage, we give an applet in which color tints are applied to a photo. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/sliders/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/transitions/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We discuss and present examples of how to use a very useful yet somewhat underdocumented AS3 class: the TransitionManager. The class allows for creating many cool transition effects between MovieClips, including Wipe, Blinds, PixelDissolve, Photo, Zoom and others. We show examples of each and demonstrate in action the events 'allTransitionsInDone' and 'allTransitionsOutDone' that are discussed in LiveDocs and seem to work well. We give several simple examples, and then build an xml-driven slide show that uses transitions. Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/transitions/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/menu3d/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We construct a vibrant gallery of flowers on a cube. We provide custom AS3 classes: BitmapTransformer, CubeMenu, and ImageLoader. These classes make it easy to customize and to create 3D menus, galleries and other applications that require image loading and distortion. Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/menu3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/spintake2/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. A custom ActionScript 3 class ImageLoader that loads concurrently at runtime any collection of images from external files. Extending the EventDispatcher class and creating custom events. Spinning bitmaps in 3D with distortion for perspective. Be sure to check it out! Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/spintake2/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/cardtake1/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We continue our gentle introduction to writing and using AS3 custom classes with Flash CS3. We show how to change our playing card applet so at first most and then all the code resides in custom AS3 classes. We create an image flipping AS3 class with distortion for perspective. We use the class to create a two-card applet. We also discuss the Document Class in Flash CS3. Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/cardtake1/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/card/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We create a simple, easily customizable applet in which a playing card is flipped when the user clicks on it. The flip takes place in 3D and the corresponding bitmaps are distorted for perspective. Such distortion requires some interesting techniques, including slicing of bitmaps. Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/card/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/intro/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We discuss the three ways that AS3 custom classes can be used with Flash CS3. Then we present a simple applet. In the initial version of the applet, the code is placed on the MainTimeline. We show how to move the code into a custom class. Then we use the class to construct variations on the applet. This tutorial is a part of a new category at flashandmath.com, Bridging The Gap: Writing AS3 Classes. Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/bridge/intro/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/dode/ In this new ActionScript 3 tutorial at flashandmath.com, we show how to build two 3D menus on a dodecahedron whose 12 faces are pentagons. In the first example, the faces are pentagonal bitmaps, in the second example, we have circular bitmaps placed inside pentagons. Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/dode/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/motion3d/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com in the Advanced Section. We build an applet in which the user can enter parametric equations for a curve in the xyz-space. The applet then plots the curve and displays the velocity and the acceleration vectors as the user traces the curve. We use our custom MathParser class to parse input by the user. The tutorial contains a pdf guide on using the parser and other custom classes. Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/motion3d/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/tween/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com in the Basic Section. We give several examples of using the AS3 Tween class. This class allows for easy creation of interesting visual effects and animations. We build control panels that smoothly slide in and out of place, with a nice 'bounce' to them. We also show a 'spin and snap back when dragged' example. Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/tween/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/cube/ A new tutorial at flashandmath.com. We show how to rotate bitmaps in 3D in Flash CS3. We build a 3D menu on a cube whose sides are bitmaps and which can be rotated by the user. We discuss the transform.matrix property of display objects in AS3 and the Matrix class. Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/cube/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/surfaces/ Don't miss this new tutorial at flashandmath.com! We build a collection of spectacular 3D surfaces that can be rotated by the user. Then we create a custom ActionScript 3 class that makes it easy to use the collection for creating a variety of visually engaging Flash apps. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/surfaces/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tetra/ Tutorial posted January 15, 2008 in the advanced tutorials section. We show how to build a 3D menu on a tetrahedron. When the user clicks on a face of the tetrahedron, an external jpeg loads. We discuss in detail bitmap fills, loading external files, the Loader class in ActionScript 3 as well as the BitmapData and Bitmap classes. Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/tetra/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/colors/ Tutorial posted January 3, 2008 in the basic tutorials section. We show two applets in which we use transform.colorTransform property of display objects in ActionScript 3 to change at runtime colors of movie clips created at authoring time. We discuss ColorTransform class and show how to use it. Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/colors/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/mousedraw2/ Tutorial posted December 26, 2007 in the basic tutorials section. A sequel to a previous tutorial. The two tutorials cover: the ColorPicker component, a custom mouse pointer, drawing with the mouse, and a touch of masking. Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/basic/mousedraw2/index.html http://www.flashandmath.com/ Visit our site www.flashandmath.com often. We provide a large and growing collection of ActionScript 3 tutorials for Flash CS3. For beginners and advanced Flash developers. Timeline scripting as well as AS3 custom classes. Many examples and fla files to download. Open source, free, and designed to help Flash developers everywhere. We add new tutorials frequently. This site initially designed for math and science educators is now popular among Flash developers community in general. Check it out! Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST http://www.flashandmath.com/index.html